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Are you in love with your job?

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Do you love your job? If not, what are you doing about it? I often find that if people aren’t sure what to do, they do nothing, which leads them, well nowhere.

You can make small changes where you are, change your attitude to your current role, or plan a carefully thought out and well researched move elsewhere.

Here are 15 reasons why I LOVE my job:

  1. My job is to help people find work they love and which fits them perfectly so they feel more fulfilled and are more productive
  2. I meet some really interesting people and learn from them
  3. I love asking questions and helping people discover insights and clarity
  4. I feel inspired
  5. I can honour my values and be me
  6. I feel authentic as I have successfully changed my own career many times so I know it’s not too scary
  7. I get paid to do what I love
  8. I feel ‘in-flow’ and alive
  9. I see my clients become more happy, fulfilled and confident
  10. I get to write which I love
  11. It combines all my experience and skills
  12. I like helping people
  13. I am a natural connector of resources and useful information
  14. I love trends and research
  15. I am passionate about people having unique talents and realising their potential

Get in touch if you would like to enjoy your job more than you do and are open to support.

To follow us on Twitter, @talentliberator

Are you oven ready?

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Employers are looking for ‘oven ready’ candidates. People who will slot perfectly, meet the job specification completely, – a ‘round peg into a round hole’. They may say they want to try new approaches, but often the behaviour and action does not match the words. If you are an oval or square peg, you may get overlooked which can be very frustrating.

Oven readiness or ‘a tight fit’ is something risk averse employers look for when recruiting; competences, experience and values.

Nervous to increase headcount, going for a safe bet and a tight fit re skills and experience reassures them. When new thinking is needed to solve old business problems, why do they take this attitude and if you think you are a good fit for the job specification, how can you get your foot in the door and persuade them to think differently?

Here are factors affecting their mindset re whether someone meets the job description:

  • Employers are more risk averse than they were and would rather delay recruitment for the right person
  • It is a buyer’s market – supply outstrips demand so the employer holds the power
  • Employers lack time, with less people doing more work, so from a decision fatigue perspective, it is easier to make an obvious ‘oven ready whip it out of the packet you fit in our box’ decision than go for an innovative approach
  • It takes time to understand a new sector, even if there are similarities, and line managers lack time to get new recruits up to speed
  • Training and development budgets are being cut, with more focus on select groups e.g. high potentials, so investing in developing a new recruit’s skills is not ideal, ‘oven ready’ is more cost effective
  • The brain sorts for similarity – it is how neural pathways work, so same market experience = similarity

If changing sectors is your only option because your sector is shrinking or something  you aspire to in order to develop your career, here are some tips to make you fit the job description:

8 tips to help overcome the oven ready mentality 

  1. Attend industry/special interest networks, seminars and conferences on-line and off line to meet new contacts and understand the issues
  2. Show you understand your target market through the language you use
  3. Get warm introductions through your LinkedIn network
  4. Write a thought leadership article demonstrating your understanding of your target market’s issues and challenges
  5. Think about and share the benefits of your different experience to the target market/employer in helping them achieve their goals and address business challenges
  6. Define your personal brand so the value you bring is clear and compelling
  7. Do an internship or voluntary work to get experience of your target sector
  8. Help them to see the similarity between the experience you bring and their market

Is persuading a sector to embrace you when your background is different possible?

Yes. My background is FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and the communication industry and the legal profession is now my main market even though I am not a lawyer and have never worked in a law firm. The legal profession is one of the most resistant markets to outsiders there is, so it is possible.

If you are looking to re-position yourself or go for a radical career change, why not get in touch?

Read our bulletin on Decision fatigue:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1111115019111.html

What’s your personal brand?

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It is important to have a niche to build your personal brand, but how do you know what niche to choose so that it motivates you and there is enough of a market for you to get your teeth into? Many people worry about narrowing down what they offer, fearful that they will limit themselves or say no to opportunities and regret it. Trying to appeal to everybody means that you end up appealing to nobody.

The internet means that the whole world is your potential market, so having too broad an offer of services or target customers can mean that you waste time and marketing budgets and achieve little, and do not build your personal brand.

Here are 10 questions for you to think about your personal brand:

  1. What words do people who know you well use to describe you?
  2. What are you really good at that you take for granted?
  3. What kind of problems do you really enjoy solving?
  4. What specific group of people do you feel most passionately about helping?
  5. What challenge have you personally overcome that you can now help others with?
  6. What type of project, if you could only choose one, would you love to tackle?
  7. What would be your dream role and why?
  8. Imagine getting to the end of your life and looking back. What would you like to be remembered for?
  9. What themes consistently come up in performance appraisals/client testimonials about you?
  10. What 2 words best sum up the gift you give to others?

What questions would you add to help to help build your personal brand?

Everything is changing fast, so plan time at least every three months to review and update your personal brand.

To follow our tweets on Twitter, follow us: talentliberator https://twitter.com/talentliberator

Armbands or rubber ring?

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I was reflecting on what stops people from jumping ship, i.e. changing career. Here are the 11 most common ones from working with many different people:

  1. Lack of confidence/self-belief
  2. Not aware of what skills and qualities they possess
  3. Don’t understand how social media is useful
  4. Perceived insecurity of making a change
  5. Lack a network
  6. Don’t know where/how to find out about different careers
  7. Dislike networking
  8. Other people’s fears e.g. loss of status
  9. Reluctance to ask for help
  10. Worry about being rejected
  11. Dislike of change

What would you add? What would you recommend to help people tackle them?

Success at work?

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I had a lovely e mail from a client this week who had left their job because they couldn’t stand it anymore, and were loving their new role, working 3 days a week in a culture conducive to their values and feeling they were making a difference and living life ‘on purpose’. To quote their words:

“I earn less than I did in my first job out of university but at the moment all the other things more than compensate.”

Their e mail made me think. What is this obsession we have with a bigger, better job title, house, car etc. when often, from the work I do with people, I see that it makes them miserable, endure lots of stress, have no time to see their kids, and exist in environments that do not fit their values?

It reminded me of a brilliant book I read a while back, ‘Enough’ by John Naish – really recommend it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-Breaking-free-world-more/dp/0340935901

In a week of news about rising fuel costs and food prices, in a world where people choose to bet on food prices, from which they could get rich but cause people in poor countries to starve, it got me thinking about success.

The dictionary definition of success is: ‘The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.’

What does success at work mean to you?

  • Getting to Board level – the ‘C’ suite
  • Work that honours your values
  • Flexible working
  • Minimising stress and politics
  • A role that plays to your strengths
  • Freedom & autonomy
  • Winning an award
  • Being able to be yourself at work
  • A culture/company that matches your values
  • Being acknowledged for your unique contribution at work
  • Having a job in the downturn

What does ‘success at work’ mean to you and are you getting it?

If not, what are you going to do about it?

Follow us on Twitter @talentliberator

20 career change tips from people who have

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Career change can feel daunting at the best of times, let alone in a downturn. What better way to get tips than from people who have already changed career. Here are 20 tips from people who have successfully made a career change.

  1. Use your network to get a warm introduction to the decision maker
  2. Anything is possible if you desire it enough but it takes planning and realistic expectations
  3. Make time to do research and understand a new career and sector
  4. Think about what you really want and if it is to do work you are passionate about or just have another job
  5. Evaluate your short, medium and long term financial commitments
  6. Evaluate your current finances for ‘survivability’
  7. Think about what you would do in a ‘worst case’ situation
  8. Don’t put yourself in ‘a box’ – open your eyes to new opportunities
  9. Believe in yourself and stay determined
  10. Research new career choices so you understand barriers to entry, competition and future career prospects
  11. Check whether you are likely to face the same challenges and frustrations in your new career as your old career, so ‘jumping from the frying pan into the fire’
  12. Unless you have money saved up and you can afford to take time off, don’t leave your job with nothing to go to until you have thought everything through
  13. Be clear if you are running away from or towards something
  14. Analyse your current position and why you want to leave it
  15. Know your strengths and weaknesses and what type of environment, work schedule and activities you like to do
  16. Think about what would make you happy, give you meaning and purpose and make you jump out of bed every day
  17. Remember that career change is a process
  18. Keep an open mind to what the future will hold and what unexpected opportunities may present themselves
  19. Make sure your desire to change your career is not projection of frustration in another area of your life e.g. personal relationship
  20. If you can, go indirectly to the decision maker and bypass HR who can have a ‘ruling out’ mentality, especially as they are overwhelmed by hundreds of CVs

With a busy job/life, all these things can be a lot to take in/make time for, especially as you are so close to yourself. That is why working with a career coach and strategist can help you to make it happen and give you support and practical advice in a safe setting and objective and confidential way. It is bit like having an event or wedding planner help you. They support you to create a great and positive result.

 

10 tips for happy self-employment: part 3

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Here is part 3 – tips for self-employment based on our fourteen years of self-employment.

  1. Have a distinctive niche/personal brand
  2. Make time for sales
  3. Structure your diary
  4. Believe in yourself
  5. Be flexible – have a plan A, B and C
  6. Plan ahead but be present
  7. Take your ‘work head’ off at the end of each day
  8. Make time for holidays
  9. Plan tasks to match your energy
  10. Have a financial cushion

What would you add? If you are thinking about self-employment, let us know if we can help.

10 tips for happy self-employment: part 2

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Here is the second of three parts with tips for happy self-employment. We have been self-employed for over 14 years, and were employed for ten years before that, so can see work from both sides:

  1. Make technology an enabler
  2. Have a good support system
  3. Do ‘wants’ not ‘shoulds’
  4. Get a virtual PA
  5. Apply the 80:20 rule
  6. Go for ‘Bull’s eyes’ – make the most of the time you have
  7. Be courageous/fearless
  8. Ask for help/support when you need it
  9. Ask for feedback
  10. Never stop learning

What would you add to the list?

10 tips for happy self-employment: part 1

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Official stats out this week show that more and more people are choosing self-employment.  I have been self-employed for over 14 years – here is part 1 of 3: tips for happy self-employment:

  1. Design it around your values – what is important to you
  2. Delegate the bits you hate/aren’t good at
  3. Make time to think, reflect and plan
  4. Invest in your skills
  5. Make time for breaks
  6. Have a separate work space
  7. Maintain clear boundaries, time and space, if you work from home
  8. Switch off your Blackberry/Ipad/Iphone
  9. Invest in your knowledge
  10. Get a coach/mentor

Part 2 next week will share 10 more tips for happy self-employment.

Have you read our Career Strategies bulletins? Follow this link for more useful advice:. Topics include work of passion, career vision, flexible working.

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

Back to work blues?

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Kids go back to school next week and August is over.  I find that people spend time reflecting on holiday and come back to work in September inspired to make a change. It is easy to get swept up in the busyness of everyday work and forget to follow through on your resolve.

There is nothing wrong with staying doing what you have been doing. Or is there? 55% of people want to make a career change but only 5% do at the moment. What are the consequences of staying in the wrong job? Here are 11 from our research:

  1. You feel stressed and out of sorts
  2. You feel unfulfilled and that you are not realising your potential
  3. You send a bad advert to your kids about making work happiness and fulfilment a priority
  4. You feel empty
  5. You get depressed
  6. You fill the gap by shopping, eating/drinking too much
  7. You grump at your partner/family
  8. You resent those who are happy at work
  9. You beat yourself up for staying in the wrong career that isn’t you
  10. You dread Monday mornings and it gets worse every week
  11. You are so tired by Friday that you don’t enjoy the weekend

So stay or go? Feeling energised in your work makes a HUGE difference to your life, all areas of it. Taking the first step can be the hardest, but if you don’t take it, nothing changes.

What have you got to lose by exploring options? Don’t be down and out.

Get in touch – we would love to hear from you: